


Through rock he descends

by Kabal42



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: Gen, Orpheus and Eurydice Myth, Underworld
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 19:09:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kabal42/pseuds/Kabal42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Neil gone, Todd seeks refuge in the Society's cave clubhouse - and embarks on a journey only undertaken by one other man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through rock he descends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inabathrobe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inabathrobe/gifts).



> I simply couldn't resist your prompt, so I hope this is to your liking. Have a happy Yuletide.
> 
> This fic was beta'ed by the amazing C.

The cave is still there, as hard as it is to find with eyes half-blinded by tears. Todd’s feet know the way, even when he stumbles over roots in the dark and a jab of a branch makes blood trickle down his leg. The pain is oddly welcome, it dulls the one in his heart and helps drown out the echoes of the voices back at the school; voices that do not know or understand, that condemn people he loves and admires. 

Inside, it is calmer. The walls of the cave dull the edges of the knife-words. His hands find the cache of candles and lights one. It illuminates the cave far more than it should. Todd leans against the wall, closes his eyes and feels a little peace for the first time in days. He curls his arms around his bent knees and rests his cheek on them. Behind closed lids he can sense the light flicker and flare. Absentminded, he rubs at his eyes with the back of his hand and feels sticky blood on the palm; he rubs it off on the wall next to him.

A loud crack and a tremor startles him and he jumps to his feet, knocking over the candle. He can still see, though, and it takes a while for him to register this and think it odd. In front of him a crack in the wall has opened, right where he sat before, and light is flooding the cave from there. Not a warm light as the one from the candle, but a cold one, like ice over gold with a sickly green tint to it. 

Todd knows beyond any doubt that he has to enter that crack in the wall, the new extension of the cave. He has no idea how he knows, but he feels compelled to. Verse in Greek slip past his mind before he can truly understand them. Before he can have second thoughts - or any real thought in fact - he steps in. He isn’t even scared when the bedrock closes behind him. The sickly light remains.

His first steps are tentative, testing the path, but soon he walks with confidence, down and down and down, the slope steep but never too difficult, he does not falter or fall. He crosses a stream, instinctively knowing to jump it; another calls to him in voices of his past, but he is not lured off his path. Time passes like drops of rain and he feels it no more than he would a breath of wind. In the back of his mind he knows it must have been a long while since he sat in the cave, hours or days or years, but he is not even hungry. Somewhere he loses his shoes, but the rocks do not hurt his feet, not enough to deter him.

When he sees Cerberus, he is prepared. It is no match for his determination, and he marches on, spirit fortified by success. At the river he pays the ferryman with two gilded buttons from his coat and makes sure not to touch this water either, staying in the middle of the boat to avoid any splashes - just in case. He knows where he is, and knows enough about how mythological quests work.

When he stands before the thrones, he has no song to move Persephone. Instead he has poetry, and it flows from his lips like he never thought it could. All he has to do is close his eyes and spin around and around and as he stops, it bursts forth, out of him, words about Neil. About lives and art and love and Midsummer Nights that never were. 

His bargain is the same as his predecessor’s. Do not turn around. You must trust he is behind you. And Todd walks, trusts in Neil if not in any fickle deities. The climb is hard and it feels twice as long as the endless descent, and yet Todd does not look, forces himself to close his eyes and crawl much of the way to make it. Not until he hears the wall of the cave crack again as it closes behind him does he look. And then he sees.


End file.
